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Matthew Kyle Levine
706 Plays5 months ago
Matthew Kyle Levine is a filmmaker and cinematographer based in New York City. His short films have won awards and played at numerous film festivals throughout North America, including the Williamsburg Independent Film Festival and the Canada Shorts Film Festival, most notably for his short film “Miss Freelance”.
Watch 'Caleb and Sarah" and other short films on Mathew Kyle Levine's Vimeo:
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Something Rather than Nothing'
00:00:01
Speaker
You are listening to something rather than nothing. Creator and host, Ken Volante. Editor and producer, Peter Bauer.
00:00:16
Speaker
Hey everybody, something rather than nothing here. We are chatting again and thankfully with Matthew Kyle Levine. First of all, Matt, welcome back to the show. As always, happy to be here. Yeah, it's great that it's great to have you. I think it's been pretty cool on the show to establish this relationship. And you, ah you know, you put out ah a short film and the work that you do every once in a while, tend to pop on and and gab about it. You know, it's great to circle back and go over everything. Yeah, yeah. yeah I ah appreciate it. And, um,
00:00:55
Speaker
We'll be chatting a bit about a new film, a short film we have, Caleb and Sarah. We'll be getting into that. But everybody, um ah Matt's been on the show a few times to chat about films, talk about art and things like that. And we're we're checking in to do ah to do ah to do
From Brooklyn to Greenwood Lake: A Filmmaker's Journey
00:01:16
Speaker
likewise. But ah first of all, ah ah Matt and I, before we came on, we're chatting about ah weather and Matt had a little incident that was supposed to be in a yeah kind of ah weather tragedy free area, but right the our last attempt to record was was taken pushed yeah taken over by Mother Nature.
00:01:42
Speaker
um And you set up there in ah New York. and problem i you know When I see i think New York, I think New York City, right upstate. um How's things been settled and you know been settling for you and you know in your home? and in yeah yeah things are Things are going good. i mean I think the first time we talked, I was living in ah Greenpoint, Brooklyn. I live there for three years or so and ah you know ah right around after the pandemic i move to up the upstate new york region and i was renting for a while looking around and then i stumbled upon this great spot greenwood lake where are one of our short films takes place house to herself. ah Yeah and when i discovered this area it seem like a hidden jam you know house prices were pretty low and no one really knew about it even though it's like an hour drive from and so.
00:02:33
Speaker
kind of just looked around and scooped up a house. Uh, it's a bit of a fixer upper, but it's been a, it's livable, which is great. And, you know, I was able to get in at the right price point that worked
Weathering the Storms: Personal Stories of Nature's Fury
00:02:42
Speaker
for me. And yeah, everyone told me it's like a very mellow community, you know, no storms, nothing crazy, but it seems like nowadays with, uh, you know, everything that's going on with the environment, you know, no, no places safe from a big storm. And, uh, yeah, we got hit pretty hard by like a record record breaking storm. And there was just trees down everywhere. And, one hit my house which was ah you know it's always fun when something like that happens but ah luckily insurance is taking care of it you know no it's no sweat off my back really financially and you know ah the hole is patched you know a whole chunk of my house came off but now they're kind of working on it and i'm in here right now so happy to say that everything is uh everything's okay now i know things will recover there for you it's uh
00:03:23
Speaker
God, new homeowner is scary. I gotta to tell you, one, I bought a house, ah this is years ago, just moved into a house in ah Milton, Wisconsin. 30 minutes southeast of Madison, Wisconsin, where I sleep. So first day, ah house closing, I don't know. hey you know You're on top of the world, man. House closing, places new. you like yeah Chill out, unpack, whatever. um you know Get things inside. And I start grilling outside. It's June or something.
00:04:01
Speaker
and um freakin tornado warnings really yeah yeah now the house the house we had bought it was shit and nothing stuck in this this this mofo down I mean it was yeah brick bungalow Lake You have to level a bomb at this thing. But it was newly purchased in the 20s. I was making food and it accelerated. It wasn't a severe thing, but it was like, you know, there's funnel clouds. So I had the grill going.
00:04:35
Speaker
And I thought I had have time to make food. I'm like, yeah, I was Wisconsin, even though I'm terrified of tornadoes. I'm like, I can't hide immediately. If there's a threat of a tornado in Wisconsin, I won't be able to live in the summer, but, um, duck downstairs inside. And, um, there was a funnel cloud. It hit like a mile away, but it was the first day I was like six hours into this house. And I'm like, yo, like I don't control the world, right? I know I can't, but I'm like, come on, timeout, like, no tornadoes on the new house. So um things will get better from here, Matt. hey gary yeah I guarantee you. House Thereself, I love
Exploring Themes: Loneliness and Nature in Film
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Speaker
that film. And as a matter of fact, when you said you had moved to the area, I kind of pictured what I saw visually, like in some of your films at a lake, as far as you are in my my my magical ah my magical head.
00:05:26
Speaker
um About your films, and we've talked about this before, you know I'm a big fan. beyond you know There's this cityscape, there's this travel, there's this transience. You're also very much wed to ah visually a trees in the upstate. So you see this kind of mix of a most liminal space of ah suburbia the motels, gatherings, but visually within your within your films of of a nature and the trees and has this
00:06:02
Speaker
a beautiful effect. But there's a carry-through, I think, that I've seen in in and looking at ah Caleb and Sarah, this like underneath loneliness or space. yeah um And you continue to do it in ah in ah in a very powerful way. I see trees and stuff like that, so I'm thinking myself. I'm out in Oregon. and yeah um I think positive pieces ah in the sense of of therapy, of the sounds of trees and stuff, but there's a haunting ah power to them, overpowering of of the of the humans. How do you, and weird question, how do you move between those spaces holding that same effect of maybe an emptiness, a loneliness? You could feel the weight of the world. How do you hold that effect in
00:06:57
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urban, suburban, natural environments
Urban vs. Rural: Tensions in Life and Art
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out there on the lake. How do you do that? Yeah, no, that's a great read of the film of all the films, actually, because thinking about it now, like there's a through line, I think, for all of the films, the whole filmography where in the beginning, you know, I lived in the city, so I made Miss Freelance, Daddy's Wallet. These are very New York City gritty kind of urban centric films. And then slowly, I've kind of had this process of moving out of the city for you know various reasons, and then living more in the suburbs. And then now I'm almost living in kind of more of a rural area. I mean, it's still suburban, but you know the closest grocery store is like a 15-minute drive away. So you know if anything, I'd consider it to be more rural. And I guess because I've now experienced living in all these spots, I kind of
00:07:44
Speaker
I don't know, it's almost like the films have personified this battle between what's better and know and and the pros and cons of living in all these areas and how there's still negativity and positivity that kind of bubbles up in all those spots. And Caleb and Sarah specifically, I think we filmed it in this very specific way ah where we do we we have these big wides and the characters are very small, almost ant-like, where they do seem like overpowered by the trees. And i think there's there's just kind of like a through line there of my experience you know and and my feeling towards nature where you know day to day i think i'd rather be surrounded by nature but i'm also a filmmaker and i'm you know freelance cinematographer so being in a city especially a big one like new york city is probably the best thing for my career you know to have access to all those people and all those companies and you know and and what have you.
00:08:34
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So there's kind of like this back and forth between wanting to live a ah life that's more spiritually connected to nature but also having this kind of financial not burden i mean i feel like i'm blessed to have the job that i have but there is this poll of like i need to be in a more urban kind of packed in area to do what i do ah but then on the day to day i'd rather be in nature and i think the characters are kind of, In my mind even though it's not so discussed in the film itself or not so laid out i feel like they're kind of. Struggling with this feeling of needing wanting to break free from the rat race ah whether it be in the city or just be having a job in general and a way i think their need for nature is kind of expressed through the movie but then also.
00:09:20
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you could see that there's a bit of a darkness and a loneliness to that path of wanting to pursue a life where you're more spiritually connected to nature because in the end, less people are out here. yeah so ah so So in a way, it's more lonely. And so you kind of have to balance those opposing and conflicting thoughts, which I think in a weird way is, it's funny how we slipped right into the themes of the movie, but I do but i do think that's that's what it's about really, if I could if i could pin anything down on it. Yeah, i love I love the terrain. I love the terrain. And and i think I think in your in your in in your films... um
00:09:53
Speaker
you know, they're they're they're thinking films and not to scare anybody away, but they, they you know, right? I mean, America, right? Like, ah no, they're they' there' they're thinking. ah ah they're They're subtle. And in the case of Caleb Serra, there's not a lot of words, so it atmospheric about what is occurring. yeah What are they struggling with? But the terrain I'm talking about, you know, thinking about um you know topography and and in in in the city and rural, you know, I i myself, I think I connect to seeing that because I myself experienced, I grew up in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, know you know, just working class manufacturing, you know, ah city, I've lived in different areas, I've been, you know, spent a lot of time on 150 acre
00:10:42
Speaker
farm out in western wisconsin, you know and i and enjoy that in a particular way or if i'm in the woods out here in oregon i enjoy that in a particular way but i see some of the things of of of of grappling with that of of being from the urban of getting some weird uh energy that fills up your body from the earth and at the same time being like seeing your shots out there on the lake being like, I don't know what's going on in your head, but you'll be like, let me just.
00:11:16
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look at this and and the people are small, right? It isn't Times Square. It's like, holy shit, look at the 40,000 people. right and And so I found myself over times kind of vacillating, maybe in an extreme way of, I need the people, I need the urban, even though it drives me nuts. And, you know, wrestle them with being out in rural, where sometimes you're in the middle of the field and you're like, man, this is lonely as shit. I don't know what to do.
Critique of American Lifestyle: City vs. Rural Living
00:11:45
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right And I think coming from a ah background of working in New York City, I feel like there's this like almost hypnotizing capitalist culture of like, in order to do better, you need to network and you need to kind of push the boundary of your comfort levels and get out there and meet all sorts of different people. And I think in a weird way, you know, even though nature is more natural, I think the society we live in now, you know, if you're living in an area that's less populated, you immediately think that maybe you're doing something wrong. Maybe you need to be around more people and be in the city, otherwise you're not gonna achieve your dreams. And I have this kind of mixed issue where you know I definitely do like living in a nature area more, ah but I also have this dream of being a filmmaker, so I know that it and you know it requires a lot of hustling and networking and all that stuff.
00:12:31
Speaker
So it's kind of like this i think america specifically has this attitude or this like social norm kind of mass hypnotization of like you're not doing enough you need to always be selling yourself more and more and more and we see that in social media, but it's also you know we can't get away from it in terms of the culture of the city and so in a way i've noticed that when people move out of the city, City dwellers will almost kind of talk to you in a kind of like making fun of way where they're like, oh, did you hear about so and so they moved into, you know, rural or suburban New Jersey. I mean, like ah what losers, you know, so I think it's a thing that people really battle with that, you know, that come from, you know, major urban areas.
00:13:09
Speaker
Yeah, and one of the things I find too, I'm sensitive to and I'm kind of that oppositional kind of behavior aspects to me is, you know, I've moved lived in different areas and the eye of the outsider. So one of the things that drives me absolutely baddie actually makes me upset. I end up arguing a bit about it is countering like deep regional prejudice over areas like, you know, just stupid, like class-based type of stuff. and There aren't rural America has problems, urban America has problems.
00:13:43
Speaker
yeah But what I'm saying is there's this lazy type of way people look at an area and look at a people and that's a shit area and that's an armpit area and all that. And I don't enter into areas like that. And I think um one of the blessings for me is that curiosity of being like, yeah, I know that person looks like a right wing, terrible, I'm going to kick your ass or slash. Like I know there's a feel of that and I know there's a reality to that, but There's a whole like people live in different ways and um not that there aren't parts. so
00:14:21
Speaker
America that you know, it'd be best, you know to stay away from me Yeah, you know right was something about it or not so welcome to outsiders, but um, but yeah, you're right There's like this team mentality almost where it's like your area is worse than mine You know, it's almost like a sports team thing and I think I mean the minute we start doing that as a society I've noticed it just gets so toxic because the next thing you know, it's like I my country is better than yours or my way of living is better than yours capitalism is better than your thing and you know yeah that's where that's where wars come from you know select that whole mentality seems like. It's very messy and i think people kind of adopted ah as almost like a defense mechanism you know just to defend people like to defend their way of living cuz they need to tell themselves every day that you know i'm doing the right things right like like you said if you're out there in the.
00:15:10
Speaker
by yourself, you're like, what is what more wrong have I done? Right. ah um You know, place me in in this position. No, I, I really, yeah I really enjoyed it. I tell you one thing, um just I want to talk more about film, but ah the way I've experienced this as as an organizer and union rep, and it's been really profound for me and a great learning experience because it talked union stuff. People think about a city, you know, they might like Starbucks, UAW, all
Union Organizing in Rural Oregon: Breaking Stereotypes
00:15:43
Speaker
that type of stuff. In my head, I get caught up in some of that pizzazz and the labor union stuff, but so much of my work now for a majority of my career
00:15:57
Speaker
has been in a rural Oregon and in places that statistically, verifiably, all these type of things that are supposed to be you know hostile territory. And I yeah worked in this environment, and and one day I called bullshit on it all. I called bullshit on it all. It's like I know anywhere, let's say, on the union thing or whatever, everybody has a unique experience. you know You're going to have this element. But I tell you one thing, as an organizer, it's person by person. Right. And like when you have a conversation with somebody connecting them to something larger, if they believe in it, you know, I find that the, you know, kind of maybe a conservative male, 50 years old, you're not saying, Oh, that's my number one union member, but they might want to join the union to be like,
00:16:45
Speaker
my boss is an asshole and I need somebody to punch with me, right? That's their reason. And so like you start to discover that people could have like old beliefs about you know different things, but you could find that there's an interest in and of themselves, um rural or not, that they're like, shit, yeah, I'll join the union, and for different reasons. And that's been a revelation to me because I find that the prejudice sometimes of stepping into it as people like that you can't organize there so fuck it right and you can do and there's a there's a deep ah deep falsity to that so have you come in your new place in the woods has your like nervous system has anything changed that way for you as far as
00:17:33
Speaker
Well, I think I have this, I do just, and I think you could see it in the movie, I have this kind of back and forth in a way with, you know, once I'm here just in the house and not really going out and filming too much for like two to three days, I'm loving it. I'm like, Oh, I'm at, I'm in a Zen space. I'm peaceful. And then next thing you know, I start to feel like I'm like, all right, when's the next shoot? When am I going to get back to the city? Cause like, I'm starting to lose it out here a little bit, you know, but luckily I'm, I'm blessed enough to have a lifestyle where, you know, after a couple of days of editing at home or even just hanging out or whatever, I'm going to get called to do something else and normally it's either in you know New York City or Long Island or Connecticut or it's like somewhere else. So I'm always traveling. I just did a tour with a musician where we kind of went all over the country and we you know went to like seven different major cities in 10 days. um So there's always a kind of a back and forth and I think for me personally I need that ah because I like a little bit of everything. so
00:18:23
Speaker
So yeah know i'm thankful for that but yeah as far as the movie goes i think also there's just like a shifting mentality towards living outside of an urban area just because of how expensive things have gotten yeah you know it to live in the city it used to make so much sense because the the jobs were out there but now there's remote working and, Now rent is just skyrocketing and you know you gotta place an hour outside of the city even if you have to commute a couple days. You know it's way cheaper like by almost slap the rent prices are slashed almost in half. So with Caleb and Sarah specifically i think these characters from my perspective even though it's very ambiguous they're kind of struggling with the the the realization that living in the city especially a major city like new york city could be a scam.
00:19:05
Speaker
Like why wouldn't i just pay less and have more space and not have rats and garbage everywhere etc etc yeah you know. um But then i think they kinda have this feeling of like the boredom or the loneliness of making that decision of it and of course this movie in a lot of ways is like a sister movie to sometime soon which is about a character who also lives out of a car. and i just I think America in a way or the people of America are kind of shifting in that direction of you know what kind of alternate lifestyle can I have where I don't feel like I'm being scammed or I feel like I have the chance to save up enough money to buy a house to have my own financial independence instead of being so reliant on these people that are just trying to milk every dollar out of you.
00:19:46
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. i ah tell tell us about ah Tell us about who worked with you on this film. You have ah you know you do the research and stuff, but you're an attractor of talent and people can deliver performances. that They have to deliver them for things to work and yeah and they do. So tell tell me about the folks you're working with on Caleb and Sarah. Well, the funny thing about this one is that it's been a ah it's been a bit of a period of working with just ah actors who are just close loved ones and Shay Glashine, who has you know i' been a sound operator and composer for most of my movies since I was a kid. We've known each other since we were eight years old. he was Yeah. And he was on the show. but yeah he ah He read the script and and he loved it and you know he had just recently married the
00:20:35
Speaker
and Diana his wife and i thought we immediately were thinking like how fun would it be to make a movie you know starting the two of them as a you know a couple as a as two people in a relationship just because that natural chemistry would already be there. And then ah and brad hoyt who is the other actor it was been a friend of mine for a long time as well and. you know, Victoria who acted in sometimes soon and trusted hands. She's my girlfriend and you know, we've been working together doing a lot of production work. So this one was really like a family movie in a way and that everybody that was involved with it was just all people that I knew really well. And I kind of wanted this one to be like a big piece, uh, you know, spanning a lot of different areas and, you know, exploring a lot of common elements that I like to always explore almost as like the finale of like the movies where I work with my friends, so to speak, as the actors.
Balancing Commercial and Creative Work in Filmmaking
00:21:22
Speaker
yeah you know I wanted to really do a big one you know that ah ah covered a lot of ground and and now i then you know the next movie I'm hoping to do something where it's more you know involving you know actors that I don't know, actors who are more, who are very experienced and a bigger cast, a bigger budget and all that stuff. yeah But I wanted to really just make like a nice like just my friends kind of movie. you know Yeah, a haunting, haunting just my friends. Exactly. Well, right. Exactly. Yeah, I know. It's funny. I talk about it so positively. Meanwhile, it's like a dark, haunting film. But I mean, that's always the case for me. That's that's a given. No, it's really good. Can can you tell me um moving between some of your paid work, ah commercial work, professional work, which
00:22:07
Speaker
I enjoy as well. oh and In your creative pieces, um do you find as a creator that there's some reinforcement or some things? Because i we talk about them as distinct, but I was wondering for you as far as ah how one informs the other in in a creative way with what you're able to do, ah that that freedom or how you express it. Yeah, it's really funny that you mentioned that. I feel like ah since I really started like living on my own and working as a freelance cinematographer, the work has really informed like you know the paid work has really informed the creative work in a big way. And you'll really be able to see that with the next movie that I'm working on. because i do a lot of just throughout Since the beginning of my career, I've done a lot of like corporate event videos where
00:22:54
Speaker
you know you do like a highlight real covering ah some sort of corporate gathering where they do meetings and speeches and you know it's a lot of big wigs like one percenters kinda talking about their plans to invest in this and to invest in that and it's also heavy. yeah and ah literally like one night coming back from one of those shoots I just sat down and you know all night just like wrote this script about ah you know an aging kind of stockbroker businessman who's tired of his life and who goes to this a similar event you know where it's a gathering of of these kinds of people ah but then of course i I wrote the event to be you know darker and stranger than it would be in reality to almost accentuate the kind of nightmarish weird qualities you know so that's a literal example of like sometimes I
00:23:37
Speaker
do these certain gigs and and immediately a story comes from that miss freelance is the same way that's a a movie that you know i did a while ago now but that still gets a lot of attention. Um, and I think it's because it's, it's so accurately portrays what it feels like to be a freelancer in New York city where you're just kind of going from person to person servicing their needs and kind of ignoring your own, you know, which I think ah a lot of people can experience whether they're a freelancer or not. But so it does seem like, uh, I feel like, uh, I'm pretty fascinated by the ways in which, you know, people have to sell themselves to make money. And, uh, and then also the ways that people try to run away from the extreme pressures of having to make money in this like,
00:24:17
Speaker
very big you know capitalist system that we live in that demands so much of us. So it's pretty much like right and left hand of you know they feed each other. The work feeds the creative work. Yeah. Let me ask you a different question. You feel in your films you're ever migrating towards horror? I feel like ah it's happened occasionally. I mean, trusted hands kind of had a horror element to it. you know ah It's definitely fun for me. It's strangely very fun to me to you know go after a kind of disturbing theme or kind of a ah very like moody, dark tone. yeah I think in a weird way, it's just very therapeutic. you know I could take all of the thoughts that I have that are strange about society or that kind of trip me out or or or or feel disturbing to me and then I can explore them through
00:25:04
Speaker
my favorite thing to do, which is make films. And it know and almost feels like it's a way to kind of expel the darkness. And I think horror is the same way. I mean, like you, if you ever go into a horror movie, said everybody is just geeking out over the makeup and the sets and, you know, how fun the story is and whatever. So, yeah, I could easily see it turning into that. And for me, the movie that I'm about to make feels almost like a horror because it's like an alternate reality where things are more disturbing and intense than they would normally be in this corporate setting, just to sort of highlights. um how odd corporate life and ah in New York City or in America is.
Visual Storytelling: Clarity vs. Ambiguity in Film
00:25:39
Speaker
So to me, it it feels a bit like a horror, but like a horror, horror, I guess we'll see, it's possible. yeah ah so its but Part of the thing in in in your film, ah you meant you had mentioned your connection to it as ah as a processing. And and i wonder I wonder about that, ah just in this sense, a lot of times you see, like if if I'm a creator, right, and I'm around somebody's,
00:26:04
Speaker
ambiguities, these feelings, this horror or these power relationships where I'm disempowered. And you have um you have all these um you have all these different um ah impacts and in in effects. When you portray, when you in your art, in your creativity, I find it ah very fascinating that There's a clarity to what you put forth, but it's it's it's ambiguous. It's like yeah visually clear, but it isn't like, as an artist, sometimes I'd be like, this happened to me, this happened, this happened to me. I wrote this, I understand it, and here's how I'm a different person after. And yeah I think it's a challenge, the way I see it as an outsider, for you to
00:26:53
Speaker
process it, but still drop it into an ambiguous sauce. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I think there's a part of me that knows like, I don't know if all artists do this, but it feels like most artists kind of personify their life through their work. And I think I always found it a little corny or a little too on the nose to be like, oh, I'm going to make a movie about a videographer who lives in Greenwood Lake or whatever, you know, like, so I don't want to do that. ah So I think I know that I have to add a lot of layers onto it for me to feel like the thing I'm making or the thing I'm witnessing it is like an exploration.
00:27:25
Speaker
Instead of just an analysis my life, so I try to change things up like Miss Freelance was a good example Especially you know I made that now a few years ago So you know it was still was on the nose and given that I was a freelancer, and I'm like okay This is Miss Freelance, you know, but just changing it to be a little more exaggerated You know it's like the main character is a woman You know so I'm making her that a little bit of a different thing you know something else that I can explore you you know that side of life that I'm not familiar with that you know not being a woman and and And then also given that you know she has this lifestyle or this career of a prostitute, which is not what I was doing, obviously, but in a way, metaphorically, sometimes it felt accurate to that, in that I was giving up my time and giving up my body. or
00:28:07
Speaker
you know, to service someone else. So I think I always like to take, uh, you know, whatever it is that I'm exploring that's going on with me or my life, and then add something that almost tweaks it just to be a little more of an exaggeration. Like, uh, Caleb and Sarah was made at a time where I was looking around for homes and I was looking to buy a house and I was having this experience of like, Oh, wow. It really seems like someone my age, you know, where I am, it's like, there's not a lot of options. It's like, you're not gonna, you can't really live a life truly independently on your own. You have to, pay someone else rent or like have some sort of higher up. And so I almost felt like ah like how Caleb and Sarah do, I feel in the movie, where they're kind of aimless wanderers and they don't have a home, like they don't have a place to call their own. So it is still about me ultimately, but I think I'm adding and a bit of an over exaggeration to make, if anything, my feelings more clear, but then adding these layers and kind of leaving a lot of blanks open for people to fill in their own lives with.
00:29:05
Speaker
and I think that kind of makes it a satisfying process to start a dialogue instead of just going this is what's going on with me I can say almost the movie almost asked the question of is this what's going on with all of us. Yeah yeah. i If you say all that, I'm like, yeah, I dig that. I dig what you have. Everybody was talking to Matthew Kyle Levine, um a filmmaker, artist, and recent a short film, ah Caleb and Sarah. ah Matt, I got a bunch of You know new listeners over time even though we get you on the show As frequently as I can but yeah, it seemed like the show's going great. It's so exciting to see thank you Thank you. Can you tell yeah the listeners? just tell about you you mentioned a couple other titles, but just just a little bit of um the background and film and the the titles and themes and um ah Folks you can get these on Vimeo, but I'm gonna let Matt talk about that
00:30:05
Speaker
yeah Yeah, so i'm I've been making films you know since I was a kid, but professionally with actors and all that. I've been doing it for the last like eight years or so. and ah You could find all the films on vimeo dot.com slash Matthew Kyle Levine, or you could find me on Instagram and then you could probably just go through the link in bio and you could find all the films that way. But you know I'm a cinematographer for hire if you're looking to you know work with somebody to you know help make your dream come true in terms of your creative project. but Also, I like to as a passion of mine make these short films that tend to explore um ambiguous areas in terms of the way we feel about you know ah to say life is so general but the way it feels to be a person in the in the working world in the in the capitalist system that we live in and the struggles that come with that and you know, I like to explore loneliness and our relationship with technology and ah you know, it's really just ah a bit of my movies tend to just be a bit of a
00:31:01
Speaker
Portrait of the human experience or the human condition So hopefully, ah you know check them out and maybe you'll see yourself in them a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, definitely um, you do some work with the with the ah music and capture and capturing you know, like what what ah you really like dropping into certain styles of music or maybe even a Different type of scene or some of the visuals. Is there a piece of that you really enjoy on the music bit? I ah In terms of music, yeah, I mean, I like to mess with, I have a bunch of sit-in-sizers. That's kind of like a separate hobby of mine. And I'll do score for certain short films and I'll even record my own stuff. I'm hoping within the next couple of months to start recording something and then maybe even like, you know, make an EP or an album or something like that. And then I'd love to hop back on to talk about that. um But I always just work with tons of musicians. um
00:31:50
Speaker
you know i I know Liz Kiger was on the show and she makes these opera films and she's just an incredible musician. I'm probably going to ask her to do music for you know my next film because I'm hoping to get more of an orchestral thing going with that. Please, I'm just a host, but please. Yeah, yeah yeah yeah she's amazing. And then Shay, of course, he has a band called Crony's and they play in and New York City. I mean, they they play all over the place, but they're mostly based in New York. and good so Yeah, crony he's great. Yeah, so me and Victoria is also a musician and she's working on an album right now. That's my girlfriend. She also stars in a lot of the films and ah is a producer on the last few. So yeah, I'm always around music. I you know, it's it's my second favorite hobby after filmmaking. Yeah, yeah, yeah I love that. I yeah for me one of my may my biggest was I got a lot of
00:32:39
Speaker
Doom metal psychedelic metal. Oh great. I love that and metal shows Portland's really good for I go to see a lot of different type of music But um, yeah, how close are you to Portland over there where you are? Yeah, I'm about an hour away. Okay. Oh great and I love Portland. It's like my favorite city one of my favorite cities for sure I I really enjoy Portland probably because it's so freaky and and unique like I don't appear to anywhere else and I Like if you're into creativity and like, you know, you're looking for a zine about, um, on Tupperware made during the eighties and there's an expert, like for the, you know, atypical mind, it can be a very good spot to be like, that person is obsessed about that for 20 years. Like I have.
00:33:28
Speaker
Yeah. Great. You could really find niche artists out there for sure. And the food too, I don't know if people talk about this enough, but like every time I go to Portland, the food is just incredible. Like there's so many restaurants that are like, these are my favorite restaurants and they're all in Portland. It's so strange. Portland has an amazing ah um amazing variety. I would say even like my favorite ah Thai places that I've ever been to and Ethiopian and Eritrean. didn oh yeah you know just ah yeah so i you know Portland's a bizarre place. it
00:34:00
Speaker
It's ah got some significant issues, ah drug and ah displacement, homelessness. um That has been a historical problem here, but um yeah a bit more pronounced and home of the great Paul's bookstore. um and ah So yeah, I get up i get up there and in in and go out a lot, catch a lot of live music in and dance, which is is is is quite is is quite fun. Hey, Matt. um oh ah to the best of your ability to talk about it coming up in the future. What what what might what point do we see or hear? Yeah, well, so basically I have a bit of a two-year, three-year plan going right now where I was planning on doing a feature by the end of this year, but I just realized that like the scope of that is going to be so huge and I want to look into getting funding potentially from you know exterior executive producers and stuff like that.
00:34:55
Speaker
which I think I will be able to gain some interest within the next couple of years or so. But for now, I realize that I really want to make a short film that feels like what the feature film would be, meaning I throw as much budget at it you know that I feel it needs. I have a much bigger cast of characters or you know and and actors. and I'm hoping to kind of maybe work with bigger name actors that I could reach out to their agents and see what they want to do. you know so it's kind of like First, I'm going to make a short film that's the biggest scope-wise short film that I've ever made. and I'm hoping to do that by October and that's going to be the kind of business convention idea that I was telling you about. I'm hoping to have about 50 to 60 extras that are all going to kind of make up this event, which will be really exciting. It's going to be my first time as a director having to
00:35:38
Speaker
use a megaphone or whatever to direct everybody, which is going to be great. And then after that, you know, I'm just going to try to hone in on this script and get more funding and then hopefully make a feature after that, maybe do like a little, you know, a shorter low budget kind of thing in in the meantime in between, but hoping to make the feature end of 2025, something like that. And then really try to c submit that all over and get it out there and hopefully get it playing in some theaters in the city. And and then that'll be it. Then hopefully I'll be making features from then on. Yeah, you know, Matt and we chatted before, you know, I'm a big fan of your film, but, uh, you know, and just seeing what you've done and, uh, uh,
00:36:15
Speaker
e Control maturity and the the subtlety and everything I I do expect you to be up on the big TV except in one of those awards and I've told you that before Because I really see it and in in in what you do and I'm a film madman, you know, so I don't yeah ever You know, I don't that's why it's so great to talk to you. Yeah. Yeah. No, I I really do and it's exciting to hear about that I'd imagine You know, one of the really cool things about um the podcast is, you know, being worldwide and dropping it to different art forms is I'm an organizer, so everything's a network in my head. If you could just pull it out. but Yeah. And not it's a it's a mapping. It's a it's a look at this creativity and thinking about how things combine like you as a director. Like, how does this go together with this? um But no, it's great to hear about
00:37:09
Speaker
ah to to hear about the larger but larger projects. And you keep on it, you keep on it, you keep putting on- I try to do one a year. I mean, I'd love to, my dream would be to just to work on these films full time. you know So hopefully that'll happen eventually and that'd be great. yeah But at least one a year, I think i just I need that regiment, that routine to feel like we're pushing forward. And personally, I believe in terms of just technical ability and scope and you know performances and all that stuff, I feel like they've been getting better and better. So I'm hoping that I'm revving up for that feature where it's really going to all kind of all the themes I've been exploring are going to come out in a nice, bigger way, a bigger package where it doesn't have to feel so tight.
00:37:47
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, definitely. um no it's it's been it's It's great to talk to you about film. Before I let you go, um you know i ah two or three two three times and leading up to this, I was like i was goingnna send ah i was going to send mad questions, kind of maybe more typical question. um but um And thinking, I see you and your film and you looking around film and directors and and and what they're doing.
Inspirations from Yorgos Lanthimos and Lars von Trier
00:38:18
Speaker
um in In recent times or historically, I mean, there's some for you just as far as, let's say even ah see and hear a film when they're doing it, you're like, oh, that's the headspace. That's my headspace, you know, those type of impactful directors for you.
00:38:36
Speaker
Oh, like who am I watching now that that kind of interests me? Yeah. Oh, man. I mean, I really have been into your ghost length almost lately and he's getting bigger and bigger. But, you know, ever since I was a kid, I loved his stuff. Like dog tooth was a major influence for me. I don't know if you've seen that one. But now, you know, with poor things, it's so great to see everybody's watching him now. And all of a sudden he has such a bigger. way bigger scope, bigger budget than he's ever had before. And just seeing him kind of go nuts with that is just so exciting. ah it is you know And I'm excited for the new one that's coming out too. and the And he's like, it's great, the marketing for that. I barely know what it's about, I feel like. you know I'm just excited for it to come out and see it. It's like,
00:39:12
Speaker
think it's like three hours long or something too. So that's going to be great. So he's been a big influence for sure. And, and recently I've just been getting really, but yeah I've always been into Lars von Trier, but I've kind of been getting back into him. And ah recently I saw Melancholia re-screened, you know, on the big screen. And I think it was the Metrograph theater, which is like a little theater in Chinatown. like And that one i I, right now that's like my current favorite movie. I just think it's so well done. And Now I'm kind of going back and watching, you know, Antichrist and want to see breaking the waves and nymphomaniacs, a great movie. And so like, you know, all the, all the ones by him I've been really getting into lately. I'm excited to see what he does next. yeah What about you?
00:39:51
Speaker
um Yorgos, I mean i i had ah hadn't seen any of his films. My breakthrough a few years ago was The Favourite. I waltzed into The Favourite and I had no idea what to expect or see anything. And I'm like, you know those moments where you're like, yes, fucking film. Yeah, right. or the wind it was yeah was It was one of those and um I really dropped, I really i really um dropped into that. You know, as you know, I've always been ah a massive fan of ah David Lynch um oh yeah and I know there's an announcement coming out in June and nobody knows or supposedly nobody knows
00:40:40
Speaker
Oh, you know what's going to be what's going to come out ah for that one. I've been um late. There's an announcement coming for David Lynch. Like yeah he might be working on something. Really? Nobody knows. I think it's like yeah June. Yeah. Now something in it was it said. like sight and sound. So oh um for maybe no man, that would be so I would love to because he hasn't made like a feature in a long time. I feel like maybe inland empire might have been the last one or something.
00:41:11
Speaker
a
00:41:14
Speaker
That is such a unique film, Inland Empire. It's crazy. And I've never had a handle on that film. No, no, me neither. The first time I ever saw it, I was a kid, and like I loved Eraserhead and Mulholland Drive already. So I was like, oh, I'm going to check out Inland Empire, just hoping that it would be another one of those. And it is so not. like I found myself just stunned and confused. And I've always returned to it once every few years, and I still feel like I can't get my full my full grapple on it. But I think that's what makes it fun and exciting, is that you can have millions of interpretation. I mean, it feels like the same way for us. and For me, it's like I've seen it ah three times. And there's particular components of the film that feel familiar and that I really enjoy like looking at, or yeah like the you know ah industrial Poland you know kind of background. and like I'm totally into that as a composite and as a whole at the end of it. It's one of those, I remember walking out
00:42:08
Speaker
and uh it was with a friend of mine and we went there you know go in and you saw it in theaters oh man that sounds so good yeah it it wasn't yeah it wasn't in for for too long we walked outside and uh it was like it was kind of like yeah i don't know like i don't that right like it was no words it was like i you know i don't like it as much as other things but it was fascinating yeah don't know what you know, ah what occurred. I wanted to mention one other thing as far as filmmakers, Ang Lee. Oh man. I just watched Crotch and Tiger, Hidden Dragon again. And the range for me, the um Ice Storm, which Ang Lee also directed, but like the range of Ang Lee, and even when people haven't liked particular parts of Ang Lee, I've thoroughly enjoyed him, including the Hulk for me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, he's incredible. I've never, there there isn't, you're right. There's no director that has
00:43:05
Speaker
that much range that's done that many different kinds of films you know i always like to think of uh i mean paul thomas anderson's one of my favorite film my favorite filmmakers and i feel like he really has a big range in a way where he can do like you know licorice pizza was almost like his most recent was almost like a romantic comedy kind of like teen movie you know and then he has there'll be blood which is like this like dark period, peace, capitalist, you know, questioning thing. But I think Ang Lee kind of has him beat in terms of just the scope to do like a superhero movie like The Hulk and then do something so tender and visually beautiful like Brokeback Mountain, you know. It's unbelievable. Yeah, I found in the ice storm, I think for me as a film is just one
00:43:46
Speaker
I think I think it's an absolutely amazing film and disturbing and stark. Just just just just stark. Yeah. um Yeah. And yeah, I watched Crouch and Tiger, Hidden Dragon and it was like mouth agape again, you know, like, yeah, keep doing all of that in the minutes.
Revisiting 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon': A Visual Marvel
00:44:06
Speaker
just just just gorgeous um i haven't seen that one in a while you're definitely making me want to check it out again i'm gonna have to and uh i was able to watch it with somebody who hadn't seen it before too oh wow oh that's a great experience always you know i feel like you when you watch like a movie that you love with someone who's never seen it before i feel like you're always kind of like
00:44:24
Speaker
Picking over, right? It's good, right? And the thing is with the movement and such in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, I remember the thing we all feel, right? Movies, you can do anything, right? You can do anything. But when you watch it, you're like, you're not supposed to be able to do that with movies. And you're like, Well, it's happening in front of you. Yeah, I guess they did it. Yeah, right. Exactly. They did it. So so, you know, so so who's to say? So, um um man, love talking, ah love talking ah movies in in in life with you, Matt. I want to mention, you I probably said this last time, one more movie thing as far as a project for me, I recently listened to the book The Shining.
00:45:07
Speaker
Oh, yeah. um I had read it a long time ago, Matt. I never read the book. I i read the book again. and um
00:45:19
Speaker
a movie and book just quickly. When I read it a long time ago, I liked it. I liked Stephen King. It's very different from the movie, right? It's very different. One of the biggest pieces as far as for me, because now I view the argument I truly view the argument between film and the book to be not useful at all. They're just completely distinct this yeah narratives in and in in approaches. But what was interesting about the book is that there was a psychological buildup pretty much to being at the overlooked a hotel for half the book. Oh, wow. well back in the In the movie, you're dropped into the horror show. like Right.
00:46:09
Speaker
in the book the exit such a slow lead up to it right where you get to it you have a You know, it's a big book the whole the whole backdrop to it and dumb and I'm a huge huge fan of the film, but I became a through this experience without getting into any further far more intrigued by the idea that there's a clash of like artistic uh in different forms of artistic giants doing like incredible things and they're just doing very different things and they're antagonistic towards each other about it right and they're like you fucked it up
00:46:48
Speaker
You
Adapting 'The Shining': Book vs. Film
00:46:49
Speaker
fucked it up. Drisberg wasn't as good. I made it better. And you're like, because yeah Stephen King, I think didn't like the movie or something like that. Right. Hate it. Yeah. Yeah. And the ah and so Kubrick put he found out what model of car Stephen King had in the car that's crashed. is Stephen King's car. That's so funny, really. Fuck you in the movie. It was like a red Volkswagen Beetle. It's what Stephen King wrote and all this critique and everything. So when the character Halleron's going from Florida back up to the overlook, you see a car crash on the side of the road. It's a red
00:47:25
Speaker
Wow, and that's hilarious. bri yeah I mean, you just you can't expect the movie to be anything like the book. Really, it's a jumping off point for sure. I mean, some of my favorite movies are based on books and I feel like they're vastly different. You know, like there will be blood is one of my favorites. and That's loosely based on Upton Sinclair's oil, but it's like only for a little section, you know. I was wondering that just a little bit of it. Yeah, that's it. Yeah. I mean, I think one of my favorite like the closest I've ever seen where like I really equally like the book and the movie might be fear and loathing in Las Vegas. because i The book is so well written and so perfect. And the movie feels almost exactly the way the book feels where I feel like that's very rare. But in that one occasion, I feel like I can't quite say which one I like better because the book is just so great.
00:48:08
Speaker
i Yeah, yeah that's that's super. I would say ah un unknownmb for politics is a ah Hunter S. Thompson's fair and loathing on the campaign trail, 1972, is by far the best ah political analysis and exposition of a campaign I've ever read. It doesn't matter what big names you want or political things and everything. You want the dope, what's going down, what's going on in politics. Hunter S. Thompson delivers in the movie. Yeah, I gotta read more of it. I've only read Fear and Loathing. I gotta start, you know, diving into his other stuff. Fear and Loathing on the campaign trail really yeah really delivers. You feel, um you know, I've worked on campaigns and there's something really wild about it. yeah feel You kind of feel inside it at times or how they jockeying out the votes and stuff. like Like it's such a circus, right? Yeah.
00:48:58
Speaker
oh um Hunter S. Thompson, right? so I'm going to check it out. Yeah, check it out. um Everybody, ah Matthew, Kyle, Levine, ah Matt, it's always a great pleasure to have you um
Closing Remarks and Film Promotion
00:49:11
Speaker
on the show. I very much look forward. ah you know I follow your stuff closely and seeing the movies and I recommend everybody to check out. you know on ah you know indie filmmakers, you want to see some some really dazzling performances and, and and ah like I said, subtlety and thinking. Really check out ah Matthew, Kyle, Levine, and it's a great pleasure to kick it around a little bit more with you. You've already answered all the profound questions, man. right right um bring up For the next one, we'll have to dive back in and see where I stand on them you know a couple of years later.
00:49:47
Speaker
well well well Well, we'll do it again and we'll act ah as if it's and yeah it's a new. I've answered some of the questions I asked a few times, and I hate, and this is not a challenge to any listener, to put them close together and look for logical consistency. I hope there is. yeah But, I don't know, the world doesn't seem to always... work that way, right? Right, right. right yeah You know, only time will tell, I guess. All right. ah Matt, from the west coast down in the woods ah to the the east coast woods. The east coast woods. And sometimes when you see them on film, they look exactly alike. Yeah. Yeah. It's been great to chat with you and best of luck. Everybody check out Matt and Kyle Levine films and enjoy. Thanks, man. Pleasure as always.
00:50:44
Speaker
This is something rather than nothing.
00:50:53
Speaker
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00:51:42
Speaker
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